lapin press

4.09.2013

Dear friends,
Sometimes it seems like the internet stars just line up.

The other day, I happened across the New York Times Haiku Bot. As if I needed another reason to love the NYT; the times Haiku Bot generates "serendipitous poetry" from the times homepage. The one above, I found particularly striking and poignant so I took a screencap and continued thumbing through the haikus. A few hours later, I went back to the screencap and took a second to read beyond the haiku at the name associated with the poem: Edith Windsor. This immediately reminded me of another internets discovery that I thought would be good to pair with this haiku.

Now, I'm hoping that none of you have been living under a rock these past few weeks and are aware of the ongoing discussion with regards to same-sex marriage and the SCOTUS. Edith Windsor is a name that you've probably heard of if you've been paying attention to these discussions in relation to the case United States v. Windsor and her 40-year relationship with Thea Spyer.

As a self-professed socially liberal history major, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I did not know who Edith Windsor was until about 2 weeks ago, when I stumbled upon the trailer to the documentary Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement, after which I watched the full-length documentary.

While I will save the details of my politics for a future post, I felt compelled to share both the haiku as well as the documentary with those who might read my blog. I do not know if what I share will either confirm or challenge your current perspective on marriage - whatever that might be - but I hope it provides some food for thought.

I'll leave you with this: somewhere in my internet explorations today I remember seeing the quote "Protect what you love." I spent part of my train ride home thinking about what it is that I love and wish to protect, and determined that one of those things was "love" itself. And having watched A Very Long Engagement, I can say that I found Edie & Thea's love to be a love that few are so lucky to find; a love that I want to protect.

While I definitely have some more flushing out to do on my thoughts on the relationship between the physical and "metaphysical" "being" of a "person" (lots of scare quotes here that I will need to explicate in a future liberal arts essay), it's an interesting thought if taken to the extreme (or not even that extreme).

We are not who we were 7 years ago, and we are not who we will be 7 years from now; not due to some self-imposed or accidental acts of self-discovery, but because we have physically been, if you will, replaced.

3.07.2013

Every weekday from 9am to 6pm, I sit in a dark room with two of my coworkers. There are no skylights, no windows, unless you count the glass partition that separates our room from the office hallway. We do have a nice view though - oh wait, that's just the wall decal cut in the shape of a city skyline.

Lit only by a floor lamp and the light of our monitors (granted, two of us have 27" mac monitors and we could turn on those horrific fluorescent overheads), we pass the hours in our cave, itching for an excuse to feel the warmth of the California sun on our skin. Do we really need to take that trip to Walgreens? The answer is "yes" if it is a sunny day, which - one should note - has constituted about 90% of my days since my move to the west coast.

I like going to work and have a pretty good time with my coworkers, but I'm beginning to think that the lack of natural light in our room is starting to effect my health, mood, and *heaven forbid* my productivity at work. The officemates and I have talked about sprucing up our room to make the space feel more...at least... livable. Bookshelves, desk lamps, inspirational posters - but I don't think we'll truly be able to escape our room's dreary "cave effect" until we punch a giant hole in the ceiling to let in some natural light. (If you couldn't tell, I just really want to bring in some plants to fill the space with more life, but alas, plants are really a no-go in a room without the very thing they need to survive.)

So, until we're featured in an episode of an Extreme Makeover: Office Edition or move office buildings, my space-envy will continue for whoever get to enjoy these light and life-filled spaces currently on my mind.

How do you feel about your office spaces? What are your *musts* for your workspace?

Lapin Press

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